VOLUNTEER

volunteer

When you volunteer at the annual JEN conference, you become part of the family. Offering your time and skills is a tremendously meaningful and selfless step in serving the jazz community.

As an organization, we operate with only one full-time staff member and a small number of part-time staff. Most of our annual and conference activities are handled by our dedicated volunteers. Each year, we look for dedicated members of the jazz community with a variety of skill sets to dedicate their time at the annual conference. YOU could be just what we’re looking for.

APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2025 CONFERENCE WILL OPEN IN SPRING 2024

CONFERENCE part-time VOLUNTEERING guidelines

  • In exchange for service, JEN provide volunteers with a FREE Conference registration badge
  • Applications are for part-time conference volunteers.
  • Membership in JEN is NOT required to volunteer.
  • You must be 18 or older.
  • A minimum of 16 total hours of volunteer service at the conference is required.
  • Conference volunteers are required to check in at the Volunteer Desk daily.
  • Part-time volunteers are responsible for their own travel, housing, meals, and other expenses.
  • The conference volunteer application will close without notice as positions are filled.
  • Volunteer applications are reviewed and accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
  • Notification of acceptance and scheduling will take place beginning in late October.

2024 Conference Sponsors & Partners

PRODUCING SPONSOR

 

DownBeat Magazine (Maher Publications) produces the annual conference program and show guide as well as ongoing JEN member benefits year-round.

 

ASSOCIATE STAGE SPONSORS

The Preservation Hall Foundation serves as a fundamental pillar of the New Orleans music community. Make sure to participate in their Musical Heritage Story Quilt outside of the Exhibit Hall and do not miss their three clinic sessions led by local luminaries of Black American Music.

A JEN Charter Member organization, Berklee College of Music is a cooperative partner and fiscal sponsor of the annual John LaPorta Educator of the Year Award.

The Eastman School of Music supports the New Voices Stage in celebration of its new Jazz Voice degree led by Sara Gazarek within its Jazz and Contemporary Media program.

Yamaha Corporation of America provides invaluable concert piano, digital keyboard, and drumset resources for the performing and clinic venues of the Conference.

A JEN Founding Institution partner, the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation is a fiscal sponsor of the ongoing JEN Research Fellowship.

The KHS America family of instrument brands led by Jupiter facilitate drumset and keyboard percussion resources for the performing and clinic venues of the Conference.

contributing research & reception sponsors

The integral Jazz Studies program at UNO proudly sponsors two of the Clinic venues for the Conference. Do not miss their session celebrating the Silverbook: Modern Jazz Masters of New Orleans, organized by the legendary Harold R. Battiste, Jr.

Join these powerhouse presenters of contemporary artists in celebration of JEN’s foundational members and charter organizations.

Join JazzWire in celebration of our exhibitors and look out for sessions marked “JazzWire Recommended Adult Learners” in the program show guide.

The dynamic jazz education and premier presenting organization of the Queen City celebrates the individual contributors that power JEN through their gifts each year.

Additional production and community partners

• New for 2024, the African American Jazz Caucus is hosting an official Marketplace of Black-owned or AAJC member-owned businesses, organizations, artists, and entrepreneurs. The AAJC is the official presenting partner of the Donald Meade Legacy Jazz Griot Award.

 • The JENerations Jazz Festival is presented in partnership with Music for All.

The New Orleans Jazz Museum is facilitating off-site partnered content at the Old U.S. Mint.

The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra is hosting an off-site Saturday Late-Night Pro Jam Session at the Jazz Market.

acknowledgements & thanks

The Jazz Education Network is grateful to all who help make our annual conference possible: JEN’s staff, the many dozens of volunteers, and Board of Directors, Casey Kruer Perez of the Hospitality Performance Network.

THANK YOU!

charlotte lang

Swiss/Dutch saxophonist Charlotte Lang was born in 1996 in Basel and studied the bachelor and master program at the JAZZCAMPUS Basel under the guidance of Domenic Landolf and Daniel Blanc. She is currently studying the Master of Music in Global Jazz at the Berklee College of Music in Boston under the artistic direction of Danilo Pérez. In addition she is part of Terri Lyne Carrington’s Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice.

 

From 2015 to 2018, Charlotte she was a member of the Swiss National Youth Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Christian Muthspiel. Since 2020, she became a member of the German National Youth Jazz Orchestra (Bundesjazzorchester Deutschland), under the direction of Niels Klein and Ansgar Striepens. She also plays is the Austrian FJO (Frauen Jazz Orchester→Women Jazz Orchestra of Austria).

 

In 2021, Charlotte founded her own Quintet the „Charlotte Lang Group“, for what she is composing, arranging and booking. In the fall 2023, her first album will be recorded and hopefully released by a renowned label.

 

Charlotte plays in the “Swiss Jazz Orchestra” and the “Zurich Jazz Orchestra”, the two professional Big Bands of Switzerland.

Charlotte recently got the unique opportunity to write a monthly blog for the Swiss Jazz & Blues Magazine called JAZZTIME, to tell readers about her time at abroad and specifically her time at Berklee. Her graduate program lasts only until the summer of 2023. She hopes to stay in the United States to enlarge her network and build her musical career.